Lesson for October 26, 2014

Today our lesson was given by Kristine Hanson on “The Sacrament: A Renewal for the Soul.” Our lesson goes with our Sunday School lesson. Sister Esplin was asked by some young women what she wished she had known at their age. She said if she were to answer that she should know about the Atonement and the Savior. Kristine said she had to think about that and wished she had been assigned this lesson thirty years ago. She went on lds.org to see about ordinances. There are two kinds: Saving ordinances (baptism, confirmation, ordination, endowment, sealing) and non-saving ordinances (blessing babies, sacrament, father’s blessings, patriarchal blessings, dedication of graves). She realized the sacrament are such all-encompassing ordinances. In a lifetime we would take it about 3,360 times in 70 years. We first have faith, repent, get baptized and then we take the sacrament and the promise of having the Holy Ghost with us always. It is a renewing ordinance. Sometimes we think of the sacrament as a preliminary thing, because it is before the talks. She had a bishop have the sacrament at the end and had a speaker come in and speak about the Atonement first. The Savior chose two universal symbols: bread and water. If we had enough bread and water it would sustain us for a long time. Just as we need basic food every day, we need to remember weekly. Katie Smith read a quote by Elder Holland, every human will be resurrected, but our exaltation, through repentance. Meagan also read about the water and its symbolism as the water washes away our sins. We were bought with a price, just as every ordinance focuses on Christ’s Atonement and sacrifice. The sacrament focuses on the symbolism of Christ’s Atonement. Sister Esplin said to listen to the prayers.. Kristine said the priests in our ward are saying the prayers with more feeling than they used to. In the scriptures, the prayers are in two places. In the prayer on the bread, it mentions in the name of Christ first and to sanctify us. So the bread is holy and by eating it we become sanctified. It is to our souls, not just our spirits. We are supposed to witness and remember that we are willing to take upon us the name of Christ. We demonstrate that we are willing through our actions. Missionaries wear name tags with the name of Jesus Christ on them and are representatives, but we can also be representatives of Christ by how we live. One sister said her cousin is on a mission in Korea and someone said she looked like Jesus. Alma said have you taken his image in our countenances. In the prayers we witness of our obedience. In the blessing on the water, the water represents His blood and we are to remember and witness that we will always have the Holy Ghost to be with us. Sister Ransom’s sister said that in comparing the two prayers that in the second prayer there is no willingness any more, but doing. Sister Esplin said we should recommit to our convenants. Jessica Lewis read a quote that the Spirit of the Lord does not dwell in unclean vessels. How grateful we are that we can be periodically cleansed of our sins by taking the sacrament. When we renew our covenants in this way, the Lord can renew the cleansing effect of the baptism. If we sin, it is not all over. Elder Melving J. Ballard said who is there among us who does not wound our spirits. We do things for which we are sorry and we must repent, put ourselves in proper condition and then take the sacrament to heal the wounds of our spirits. Rachel Hickman remembers going to the temple for the first time and remembers being clean as an adult and knowing what a precious gift. She went on a mission and thinking she were as clean. She was sitting in church and realized she could be that clean every week. She wondered why she hadn’t realized that before, but there is a time when things connect. She knows she can be clean every week if we sincerely repent. We can also be strengthened by the sacrament. A young woman focused on her repentance and the sacrament prayers each week and started feeling sad that she kept making the same mistakes. She realized that she wasn’t taking advantage of the Atonement. She felt strengthened and was able to feel joy. Sometimes we may wonder if we are worthy to take the sacrament. When we desire to improve and have no restrictions, we are worthy to take the sacrament. The part in the prayer about always remembering the Savior. Meagan said that she includes the Savior in all her busyness and feels strengthened. Amy Young said that life is a bunch of choices and what choices we make define us. Dana Smith said she always listens to hymns on her days off. Vira Bahr said she works with people all day and she notices that how she treats others is affected by how well she remembers the Savior. She tries to behave to others like the Savior would. Kristine said we can view others as how they represent the Lord to us. Aaronic holders represent the Savior as they perform their duties. Through them we have gifts of repentance and hope. Margaret said that when the young men perform their duties carefully and with the Spirit. A man asked his disabled father why he went to Church and the father said it was the sacrament. Let us all think of the sacrament that way.

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Lesson for October 19, 2014

Lesson for October 19, 2014 Today our lesson was given by Maggie Kopp about “Prayer: A Commandment and a Blessing.” Maggie shared a video of good will in New York and what prayer means to a woman. President Monson quoted the scripture that tells how God knows the prayers of our hearts. This woman had been taught by the missionaries and lost touch with them. She prayed that the missionaries would find her. She saw them in her apartment building and she told them to come in, because she was waiting for them. She said that prayer has helped her be more humble and know when to help someone else. She said that God rescued her through prayer. President Monson said that prayer is the passport of peace and the provider of answers. Miracles are wrought through prayer. Maggie focused on quotes by a 1968 talk by Elder Didier: Prayer is what we need, not something God needs. Prayer is not for us to tell God Hid business, but for us to learn ours. We need the guidance of the Holy Spirit and have our minds quickened by the Holy Spirit. How does prayer help us? It humbles us. Kristine Hanson said it is a boon that unites our will with God’s, so we know what to seek. Emily Campbell said it helps us be heard and feel like we’re being heard. Prayer also helps us to understand things better than we would have. Heavenly Father knows us better than our friends. Jenni Harker said it makes us feel empowered, because there are things we can’t do ourselves that we are helped to do. Sister Bahr said it is a daily communication with someone we love and trust, so it is sacred. Katie said that prayer is comforting and even if she’s not sure what to do, she feels better. Maggie said it changes our attitudes. Emily Campbell said it helps her realize it is not entirely her husband’s fault. Adele Hickman said it helped her realize that God loves her son more than she does and knows what will help him. Kristine Hanson said it helps us feel gratitude and not feel sorry for ourselves. Jessica Lewis said she’s been focusing on true communication and it helps her be able to keep her will more in line with her Father’s will by focusing on what He wants her to do, rather than what she wants. JFS said we should pour out our hearts in gratitude. Irma Lopez said to start prayers with gratitude and giving thanks. Jessica Lewis felt like she needed to get up early to be alone with the Lord. She got the revelation that she needed to focus on gratitude to help her. Maggie asked if we had ever made a gratitude list. One sister said she’s been keeping a prayer journal and she gets a lot of support. Another sister said she kept a gratitude journal and she read it over and saw that when she was especially grateful, she received blessings. Taking the time to think about prayer beforehand helps her thank God for the things she hasn’t received yet, things that she would have asked for and it was an amazing experience. Others also bore their testimonies about teaching our children to pray and being grateful. It changes our actions, too. We should not pray merely with our lips, but express our prayers by how we live. We should put our actions in harmony with our desires. Megan Miller said she gets the most out of her prayers when she is specific. One sister told of an experience where she and her husband had taken the time to pray for him. Everything went wrong that day, but by the time she got home that night, it had all worked out. Linda Campbell said she gets very specific in her prayers for her grandchildren. Our actions show that we have a relationship with our Father. Through our prayers, He wants to build our testimonies, so often He keeps up with His end of the bargain, even if we are not so good at it. Megan Miller said she tries to make things happen with Heavenly Father and she finally realized that she needs to pray for what the Lord wants and things will be taken care of when the Lord wants it to. Our prayers help us learn to trust. In 1919, JFS mentioned the D&C scripture about the season of prayer. He said it is all the time, not just when we go to bed. We are all in our own seasons, but we all need to pray all the time. Maggie said that the seasons of our lives and the seasons of our prayers overlap. Prayer helps us with whatever circumstances we are in. Let us improve our prayers.

Lesson for October 12, 2014

Today our lesson was given by Megan Miller on “Proclaiming the Gospel to the World.” She shared a clip from Elder Bednar’s conference talk about his two sons, one of which was injured and then treated kindly by his brother, who soaped up and scrubbed the injury and covered the younger brother with bandaids. The injured brother gathered up ointment and bandages and shared with his friends. The older brother loved his brother and wanted to care for him and then the little one wanted to share with those he loved. In order to share the gospel, we need a testimony, we need to be willing to serve, we need to listen to see where there is trouble or need. It is important to have good relationships with people so they know we like them and they can be comfortable with them. Sometimes people are curious about the gospel and are not ready to be baptized. Sometimes the timing has to be right. The D&C says that before we preach the word, we must learn the word first. As we are with our children and teaching them, we are involved in missionary work. Then, not only are we doing missionary work with our children, they can share the gospel, too. We can decorate our homes so they reflect our involvement with the gospel. In 1 Nephi 11:16-17 it is about the angel telling Nephi about the tree of life. The angel asks a question and Nephi doesn’t know, but he says he does know that God loves His children. He testifies first about what he does know and then says he doesn’t know the answer. So we might not know everything, but we are willing to find out the answer. Our children and friends need to know that there may be a lack of knowledge and there may be disagreement, but that’s all right. You can still love each other and you can find things out. We don’t always see the fruits of our labors, but we can help people take the first steps. Sue Ann Harding tried to share the gospel with a woman who was experiencing problems. The woman did not accept, but she was still friendly. We ran out of time before we could read from the manual, but we had a really good lesson with people who shared.

Ward Halloween Party, Wed. October 22, 2014

The ward Halloween party will be Wednesday, October 22 at 6:30 and will include a dinner, games, and costume contest (No masks or gore). If your last name starts with the letter A-J, please bring a salad or side dish. If K-Z, please bring a dessert. On Wednesday, October 29, the your will come to your home trick-or-treating for donations to Deseret Industries. Please have items on your front porch before 6 p.m.

Lesson for Sept. 28, 2014

Our lesson today was given by Kristine Hanson, Chapter 20 “Love and Concern for All Our Father’s Children” from President Monson’s April Conference talk “ Love—the Essence of the Gospel.” When we think of this title, we think of the atonement and charity, the pure love of Christ, God is love, the love that we have to have for ourselves and those around us, friendliness, it is life-giving, it is the first and second great commandments—the love of the Father and the Son. The fact that we are born into families is to help us to learn to live in love and to give love. President Monson points out that if we don’t love God if we don’t love our neighbor. Loving our fellow man is based on the understanding that we are all God’s children and brothers and sisters. President Kimball said that the individuals we meet in parking lots and elevators are our brothers and sisters. This love is manifest through kindness, friendliness, forgiveness, protection, service, not judging, acceptance, forgetting, charity, giving time, listening, patience, donating, trusting, keeping confidences, sharing talents, times, food, longsuffering, sacrifice, enduring to the end, trying to understand, empathy, hoping for the best, having faith they will, teaching, encouragement, benign assumption, and acting on promptings. Have you ever regretted being a little too kind? Kristine said she regrets not contacting a friend whom she had wanted to talk to for a long time, but hadn’t done it. Her friend died in her sleep recently and the woman’s husband said the friend had been troubled recently. Kristine thought maybe she might have actually helped by listening. President Monson had stories in his talk. One was about a flight that went out of its way from Juneau, Alaska to take care of a little boy who had fallen on glass and severed an artery. The passengers all agreed that it was a worthwhile thing to go out of their way and after they let the little boy off, they found out the boy was going to be all right. The passengers took up a collection for the family and cheered. President Monson also told of a woman who gave up her pay to help a young woman in 1933 with the sewing in a factory that was too hard for the young woman. They remained friends and in the 1950s, the older woman gave the younger one a Book of Mormon and in 1960, the younger one was baptized with her family. One sister said that her husband was a home teacher and every week went out to teach a man who lived 25 miles out of town, until he finally, a year and a half later, came back to church. Kristine said in her family a great-grandfather was called on a mission while he had a wife and small children. He worked hard to put up food to keep his family safe while he was gone. After he left, someone stole the food. She could see the track in the snow, but they couldn’t find out who did it. They were devastated, but family stepped in to help. When the husband came back from his mission and became bishop, a man came to him and said he knew who it was. The bishop said he didn’t want to know, because he’d already forgiven the robber. The son, Kristine’s Uncle Wilford was a bishop, too, found out who was the robber was and sat with the man while he died. Kristine’s uncle (age 11) was killed accidentally by a rifle bullet. The little boy who had pulled the trigger cried. They boy’s father started to scold him, but Kristine’s grandmother said it was an accident and not to scold the boy. They had the boy sit between Kristine’s grandparents during the funeral and for many years showed that boy love and help. When asked if they would sue, the grandmother said that money couldn’t be piled high enough to compensate for the loss of love between her and the offending boy’s mother. Kristine challenged everyone to go home and tell a family member that they are loved. Love really is the way of happiness.